SGU: Faith (Episode 13)

SGU Episode 13 “Faith” Reviewed by Terry (Colonel_Ez) Spoiler Potential High With a personal title of “Oh… that’s nice” As the A story of this episode began to unfold I was a little concerned, right after Divided, an episode with a month of sitting still could have been used as a fixer episode, giving everybody time to heal and moving on a month later with the issues restored – I am glad to day that this episode didn’t do that entirely. My main concern was that we were going to be cheated out of seeing Scott and Chloe deal with the fallout from Divided by having them reconnect on the planet and while they did to some extent, it wasn’t perfect or complete – which I think was the aspect of all the developing or repairing relationships between those on the planet or those on the ship, we got to see a glimpse of what co-operation would be like – and it was good. We’ve progressed from Divided and, even though we know it is a forced effort on both parts there is a sense of cooperation that we haven’t had before, not even in crisis, for me this is highlighted in the “briefing room scenes” Rush, Young, Wray, Eli, Scott all discussing the situation and deciding on a solution, the “briefing room scenes” were core elements of SG1 and SGA and this is the closest we’ve ever gotten to having them on Destiny. This was echoed again in the discussion about those remaining on the planet between Young, Wray and Rush – again not perfect but everybody was heard – it’s the beginnings, in my eyes at least of a command structure Scientists, Civilians & Military – I’ve gone on about wanting to see it a lot and this did not disappoint While seeing everybody, both on the ship and on the planet bond over the month was interesting – I imagine that when we go back to the regular routine of jumping from system to system and normal life on the Destiny things won’t have been magically fixed and I hope that’s the case. The writers did an ok job reminding us that things weren’t perfect, a few exchanges between Rush and Young to remind us that for every one step they took forward in their relationship, they could easily take another two steps back – I did enjoy that they ended this episode on a positive – as entertaining as their dynamic has been so far I think it would be doubly so if they somehow became friends yet still remained at odds with eachother over certain episodes. I loved seeing Eli and Wray develop a friendship over the course of the month, Eli seemed to bond to Chloe (since their meeting on the Hammond in air) and to Scott (since the tour of Icarus also in air) and apart dealings with Young, Rush and others – on an work level he’s stayed inside that box, I hope its not neglected in the future. Given that this episode was entitled Faith, I expected to have a hard time with its themes, I was expecting religion and as im not a religious person myself I usually have a hard time enjoying those types of themes – but it was done in an interesting way, Faith in an advanced culture rather than a god, that was important to me and to Stargate After interviewing Brian J Smith and discussing some of his favourite episodes, he mentioned Faith as an episode he enjoyed because of the Scenes between Scott and TJ so I was on the look out for those and they didn’t disappoint, they developed an almost brother/sister relationship towards the end of the episode and given what we know about Scott so far it’s a big deal for him to have sided with TJ against the colonel, his feeling of responsibility was more to TJ than to the others. I liked that their were foundations laid for things in the future, we discovered more of the ship, we found something that looked like a Robot among a room filled with crates, however I am disappointed that we seem to have repaired and subsequently lost the second shuttle, also wondering where the Senators body got to – it had been a commonly held assumption that the Senator was left in semi-vacuum inside the shuttle, either this was wrong or his body was removed and not mentioned during the episode. As far as whether the obelisk building aliens are a seed for future stories I don’t know, part of me hopes they are but part of me thinks, given the title and nature of this episode that we may not see signs of them again, or if we do it will be just as cryptic as this time. The acting was as always amazing throughout, I enjoyed every character – including Greer which is a big deal for me, once again I find myself wondering where Caine came from and why he seems to be getting so much on screen time, not that I mind as Tygh Runyan is an engaging actor and his scenes are always interesting Well for this week that’s me done; remember to read Brian’s review of Faith as well and to check out our podcast on the episode when it becomes available on Tuesday. If you have comments on this review and want to discuss it further with myself and others, then pop along to our forums and visit the show reviews section.